Chef Brad Farmerie — who has a Michelin star for AvroKO’s Public in New York — chatted yesterday about the Napa project. In fact, he was speaking from the gardens at Copia, where he’s been active in getting to know the local chef community. Next week, he’ll start planting for a late summer/early fall harvest. Here’s a portion of our conversation:

PL: Explain how the whole Fagiani’s project came to inception.

BF: Obviously we’re based in New York and have some restaurants and bars there. For the past year, we’ve been considering doing a project outside New York, but it had to be special and close to our hearts. We couldn’t go into a random place. A bunch of my business partners and AvroKO people have been spending time in Napa. The land, the environment, the wine and the food really spoke to them and when the Fagiani’s building become available, it was perfect. The building is an icon of the region, and the opportunity to revive an icon was too much to pass up.

Our biggest goal is to do something that speaks to that history. With the food and design, we want it to still be an icon.

There were some heavy-hitters looking at it. How did you land it? When did work start?

Yeah, everybody wanted it. Conversations went back years, and forming a relationship with Steve definitely helped. He’s a great guy and he wants the best for the city of Napa. One thing that spoke to him, I think, was that we wanted to keep the history of the place: the name, the facade, the old sign. And we wanted to be a part of Napa.

He’s been retrofitting it for a while. We went in there in February-March, slowly assessing it. Now we’re building full steam.

What’s your plan, food-wise?

Coming from New York and having this bounty on the doorstep speaks to what I want to do. It will be rustic, but everything will have a twist that makes it more modern, more unique. We’ll have a raw bar, but even those items will have a little twist. For example we’ll be using the squid, but we might grill it and chill it, or we might smoke it over tea. We’ll find a way to put it in a nice package.

It’s going to be a vegetable centric menu, with lots of brightness and freshness. The important thing is to keep the integrity of these great ingredients.

The wood fired oven will be a main point, whether it’s just a kiss of smoke on vegetables or a beautiful piece of heritage pork. That will be a slight thematic twist through the menu.

How’s the kitchen? It’s on the second floor, right?

The kitchen has a view. The ground floor is going be a real celebration when you walk in. It’ll envelop people in drinks and bar culture. We want to build on what we’ve done in New York. Upstairs in the dining room, there are the huge amazing cathedral-like windows. It will be an open kitchen, because we want to blend what we’re doing in the kitchen with the guest. There’s no barrier there, it’s almost as if you’re in someone’s kitchen. Upstairs will be the roof deck where the views get even better. We’re looking at the possibility to roast whole animals up there.

You know, we want to be part of Napa. I’d be a fool not to want to be out here. The chef culture has been great.

How so? Where have you eaten?

I’ve probably eaten at Oenotri more than anything else, especially for lunch. I’ve had amazing meals at Morimoto and Farmstead. I’ve made the rounds not only to be able to see what everyone is doing, but also to introduce myself and become part of the community.

It seems like everyone knows each other. We’ve been doing some of our menu testing at Copia. Ken Frank came in and showed me where I can plant my stuff in the garden, who else is using it. [laughs] I’m not in New York anymore.

So what about this floating wine cellar on the second floor?

It’s pretty crazy. We’re taking a glass temperature-controlled wine storage walkway and basically placing it up halfway up a wall. The ceilings are really tall so it allows us to put it above the banquettes where people are sitting.